If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.